Friday at the races

[rmk57]

  My hood scoop project was kind of successful. Car ran about a .15 quicker and a little over 1 mph faster. One thing I did notice is my fuel pressure dropping towards the end of a run.

Goes from 7.5 lbs. to 3-4 lbs. Might look into an electric pump just for at the track.

[59meteor]

Nice shot, Randy! That is a pretty good performance improvement, just wondering if you have the scoop sealed to the carb, or if it lets air in all over the engine. Is that a Boss 429 scoop, or the slightly shorter Cougar Eliminator/Cyclone/Comet GT version? Always liked both scoops, so much nicer looking than a Chevy style cowl hood on a Ford.

[rmk57]

  The photo credit goes to my sister. Yes it's a B9 scoop from Tony Branda.  Is the scoop sealed to the carb....sort of. Because of the irregular bracing under the hood some of it is sealed, all I know is it's better than the 2" drop base air cleaner I had on before. I have a Victor intake I'd like to try out and play around with carb spacers now that I have the room under the hood but wont be until next year.

Mission was packed on Friday for the T&T.... people were asking about ya.....must be a Ford thing.

[59meteor]

Yeah, I will certainly miss racing at Mission Raceway, but now that I am 6000 km (4000 miles) away, pretty unlikely I wil get to race there again, although if I go back to the West coast for a visit, I will go back to the track to see old friends. Too bad that we never got a chance to get some photos of your 57 and my 59 going down the track together before I moved. I was really hoping to be able to race at the Mission Oldies Drags before we left, but Covid cancelled that event.Will you have the 57 to the track anymore this year? I plan to take both the Fairmont and the 59 out for our last race in Greenfield NS next weekend, then plan on a new set of aluminum heads over the winter for the 428 in the 59, and maybe swap out the Toploader for a new Tremec TKX 5 speed. any plans for winter changes for the 57?

[lalessi1]

What aluminum heads are you considering?

[rmk57]

  No more races this year for me. There are only a couple Friday night street legals left and no test and tunes. I ordered an electric fuel pump, nothing fancy, just one of the Carter HP units to help my Carter mechanical along. I also have a Victor intake to try out. I also have to think seriously about a roll-bar. Not sure if I want to install one or not and the tech folks haven't said anything but it should have had one awhile back according to the nhra rules. Yup, the old time drags, my favorite event. Hopefully next year.

  Were also looking to move, not 4000 miles though, around 250 or so. Looking in around Summerland, Penticton. They close the airport in Osoyoos 5-6 times a year, could be my home track in the future.

[59meteor]

What aluminum heads are you considering?

At the moment, it seems like nobody has stock of any of the aluminum FE heads , but I was talking with FE guru BLAIR Patrick in Tennessee the other day, and he is hoping to have a fresh shipment of the BBM aluminum FE heads coming in for November. Since the 428 CJ in my 59 is fairly mild, Blair and I figured a pair of out of the box BBMs should give a decent HP increase, without being too big. The only reason that I am considering new heads, is I found one of the exhaust valves had lost most of it`s valve lash, and the compression is much lower than the other cylinders, so it looks like that exhaust valve seat is sinking away. Not to many shops want to put hardened valve seats in 50+ year old iron FE castings anymore, as they are pretty thin in that area. The newer TFS FE heads are pretty nice as well, but seem to require machining .200"-.300" of the rocker mounting pads to get the geometry right. Blair likes the BBM combustion chamber, and said I could likely run run about 4 degrees less ignition timing, which since I have the original 428 CJ pistons, rated at 10.6-1 compression , would be a good thing with the pump gas available here.